


Somewhere To Begin

by Katherine



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Pre-Canon, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-12 01:10:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18435923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: They were no longer literally on the run, not since they had found this suitable cave.





	Somewhere To Begin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StormyDaze](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormyDaze/gifts).



They were no longer literally on the run, not since they had found this suitable cave. But very much metaphorically so. Or on the hiding, if that could be a phrase. If only they could stay hidden safely enough, for long enough. What Shadow Weaver would do if she caught them... Catra literally had nightmares about that. Adora herself did also.

The pair of them couldn't be much less alone, Catra full of what she said with a certainty that was nearly eerie were kittens.

Adora did not drop the food she had gathered on to the floor of the cave, but it was a near thing as she rushed deeper inside to those sounds from Catra. Pained, heart-reading sharp sounds and little hisses.

As she had grown bigger—fuller—Catra had begun to move less smoothly. Adora would never dare describe her aloud as uncoordinated, but Catra honestly kind of was. Less so when she took to walking around on all fours, her clawed hands and feet spread wide to balance her belly round beneath. Then as the weeks progressed the huge swell of it hanging, heavy. By that point, not only were they staying in one hiding place, Catra ventured not even to the mouth of the cave any longer, remaining by the supplies and fire at the back.

She seemed to have swollen even bigger since the early morning, and was squirming a little, stuck on her back like a turned-over beetle. Her pained sounds were muffled as she pulled Adora down over her for a kiss. Demanding, she put her hand on Adora's. Adora swept their joined hands downwards, eager to touch the amazing, tight swell of Catra's pregnancy.

Catra twitched one leg upwards, and her hands spread, but she didn't kick or grab at Adora's petting hand. She had times before, in play or reflex. Touching Catra's belly was sometimes a trap. Adora liked to anyway, even before. Now, it was all but irresistible. Adora could feel the movement there. She breathed in, conscious of the moment, taking in the faint smells of dried grass, slightly damp cave, and woodsmoke. Their own secure place surrounding them where they hid.

*

It was Adora's fault, she was fairly sure, and nothing they had planned for. Being discovered, being separated, being used against each other... Not that they had planned for any of those, precisely, but they had been looming possibilities of future.

But all sorts of impossible things could happen, it turned out. Neither of them had expected their enthusiastic use of that hidden storage room could have led to such a thing. The glowing crystal had been strange, but they had been focused on privacy, not expecting magic. And Adora had been frankly proud of herself for having discovered the room, since creeping about finding places was much more Catra's role, usually, and had been since they were far younger.

Catra had taken the knowledge that she was full of young—Adora's young, somehow, she had a sense and stubbornness about that—with truly surprising ease. Not that she gave away much, usually, nor let herself be shown ill at ease if she could help it.

It had been a silent way of telling her, for all that they could whisper softly enough to be private, in barracks, Catra curled with Adora on the lower bunk. Catra had pulled Adora's hand to her belly, and it was that gesture as much as the very slight rounding there which had communicated the unimaginable fact.

Adora was quite sure she would have been wrong-footed, were the positions reversed. If she had fallen pregnant thus—by magic, not even in any ordinary way. Shadow Weaver would have hunted them as persistently, if not more so since Adora had been (she admitted) the favourite.

They were not home with the Horde, and it would do her as much good to imagine fantastical settings she and Catra could be together in. Sharing confections at a village festival. Dancing surrounded by a happy crowd.

They were together. They had escaped, and so far they hadn't been caught. That was the context that mattered.

*

They didn't exactly have luxurious surroundings for Catra to give birth in. Primitive, more like. At least there was water nearby, and plenty of surprisingly-soft vegetation to make beds out of. Supplies laid in, with the foraging Adora was getting necessarily good at.

Catra flicked an odd-eyed glance around the cave, assessing, and Adora turned to fuss with how she had stacked drying branches. When Adora looked again, Catra's ears were angled partway back, but the tone of her voice was steady. "It's going to hurt."

"I'll help," Adora said, feeling helpless. She would have to; the pair of them had no one beyond their own selves to trust.

Catra's hand moved to Adora's arm, pressing, and for a frightening moment Adora thought it was already time. But Catra's breathing wasn't laboured, and she didn't look to be in pain, beyond the heavy discomfort that was a constant now. What she did show was how determined she was.

"They'll all have claws too," Catra said. Pointed out, her own sharply touching Adora's arm where her fingers gripped.

Adora nodded. It went along with the babies being kittens, she supposed.

It shouldn't be a shock to Adora that Catra had been mulling over worst case scenarios. "If it's too soon, there's nothing." Catra didn't finish the sentence, but Adora could have: nothing to be done.

"But if they're late, and they might be." Catra was already huge, it was hard to imagine there being much space left in her for the babies, however many there were of them, to grow bigger still. Adora did her best to look encouraging, having no idea what words to offer.

Catra continued, "There's a fun way to bring them out faster." For all that her shape was different now, her sprawl was as practiced (well-practiced on Adora) sensual as ever. The widening angles of Catra's legs and the soft curve to her tail welcomed Adora nearer.

Adora stroked the soft fur above Catra's eyes, then set her mouth to the tip of Catra's nearer ear, humming laughter as its twitching tickled her lips.

*

Catra was whimpering in her sleep, half words and part tiny mews and the last part hissing. Adora quickly finished banking the fire for the night, before she curled herself against Catra's side, back against her. Catra was soon calming down and quieting at the contact. Tucking her head on Catra's arm for a makeshift pillow (she usually had her Horde jacket folded up to be one, but didn't want to move to get it) Adora felt herself also slipping towards sleep. This close, she would feel if Catra woke and needed her.

They were secure here, or at least felt secure. Had to be, with Catra too pregnant to easily roll over, let alone move. When Catra's other arm came heavy over Adora's side, then the half-curled fingers of one hand began kneading as Catra purred, Adora relaxed. She too could sleep, after another day safely hidden, another day for their kittens to grow within Catra.


End file.
